A Whoopy Cushion on the Throne of the World

by Finnegan Burres

The Yes Men take a look at big companies, particularly oil companies, that are irresponsible and unaccountable for their misdeeds and misuse of their immense power. Beyond this, they attack the general greed that plagues the free market, and the firm grip this ideology has on the American government. And, having understood this film so well that I can concisely describe their goal, I feel as though I've conserved room in this paper to say that I have been inspired by these two gentlemen, international pranksters, and people who, themselves, use a prank to cost a group of people two billion dollars in stock shares. This, to me, says that the artist, and the comedian has a far greater power in this world than I previously thought.

Now, back to the matter at hand, this film follows two men who use deception in the press to misrepresent the actions of big companies in order to incite a reaction from the public that will end up pressuring the companies into change. First, they go on international television to say that their large oil company has decided to liquidate a 12 billion dollar subsidiary in order to pay reparations to people affected in a third world country. The point of this video was to demonstrate that wealthy corporations operate without much needed restriction, and the filmmakers use documentary footage of the stupid being stupid in order to illustrate how deep the problems they see are going. 

The biggest of the many laughs I had over this film came from the occasions when Andy was standing in front of a group of investors, businessmen, or even world audiences and lying through his teeth. And, not only this, but the fact that the audiences are captivated and enthralled by a flat out lie. This comedy presents people we know, people in the press, people in nice suits, high ups, those we assume to be efficient, no-nonsense people, as being easily duped and manipulated. But of course, the real laughs were taken from information completely untouched by the film makers, such as reporters offhandedly remarking about the relative insignificance of natural disasters in comparison to terrorism, or the relief in hearing a company say that they care very little about the value of a human life. 

So, these film makers have managed to exaggerate the focus of major corporations on one primary goal that seems to supersede the need for basic human rights and respect by showing that they have completely disregard human life in favor of making money. And, they have also used a series of actions that seems to take the power back, and put it into the hands of the people in the conflict with big corporations. When these companies can defend themselves with armies of lawyers, and century long policies that contain hidden loopholes, audiences can watch films like this to find out that the little guy can still manage to gum up the works, and tip the odds in the favor of morality.